The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has made changes to the state's interconnection procedures, which Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC, Latham, New York, U.S.) says remove barriers to the growth of the state's renewable energy market and establish new national best practices.

The new Rule 21 creates a screening process to sort applicants into different levels of review, as well as new screening processes and establishing timelines for review completion. The changes represent a settlement between the state's three large private utilities and 11 other stakeholders, including IREC.

"This ruling is of national interest," explains IREC Executive Director Jane Weissman. "Regulatory successes like this in one state provide replicable examples for other states, providing the foundation for a robust clean energy industry in the public’s best interest."

"This change builds on enhancements IREC helped to bring forward in Hawaii last year, and IREC hopes to see other high penetration states consider similar improvements in the coming year."

Load penetration screens modified

The new rules maintain the 15% of peak load penetration screen in the initial review process, however under Supplemental Review the utilities will apply a 100% of minimum load threshold.

This screen will examine minimum load measured during the daytime, which IREC attorneys say will allow the state to process applications quickly while still meeting utility needs to assure reliability and power quality under high penetrations of solar. The organization also states that the minimum load screen is less conservative and more relevant than the 15% of peak load screen.

Revisions to assist in approval of DG projects

IREC notes that the revisions will also assist with resolution of wholesale distributed generation projects in Southern California Edison's (Rosemead, California, U.S.) service territory with transmission dependencies.

The organization participated in the review process by providing concrete proposals for improvements and insight into best practices, as well as by having its attorneys draft portions of the revised tariff language and facilitate communications between stakeholders.

2012-09-24 | Courtesy: IREC | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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